Picket fence

History

Picket fences are particularly popular in the United States, where the style has been used since America's earliest colonial era and remains popular today. Pickets were historically sharpened logs used to defend positions and used as such by early colonists. Now they are a decorative way to contain pets and children without blocking views, and are used around both front and back yards. Traditionally picket fences were made out of wood and painted white (or whitewashed), but now picket fences are also widely available in low-maintenance polyvinyl chloride (PVC or Vinyl).

Until the introduction of advertising on fences in the 1980s, cricket fields were usually surrounded by picket fences, giving rise to the expression "rattling the pickets" for a ball hit firmly into the fence.

Design

A picket fence is generally 36 to tall. A horizontal top rail and bottom rail are attached to fence posts, which are installed upright into the ground. Evenly spaced boards are affixed vertically to the rails. These boards with pointed tops are called "pickets" for their resemblance to the pointed stakes historically used by infantry to repel cavalry.

Picket fences can be made of several types of materials. Historically, wood has been the most popular material used for picket fences. This wood can be untreated, treated, or naturally insect and rot resistant. Available non-wood options include vinyl (PVC) and aluminum.

Installation

The first step in installing a picket fence is to insert the posts into the ground. Traditionally this is done by digging deep holes (usually 36 in x 12 in) either manually or with a power auger. The posts are then placed upright into the ground and concrete is poured to cement them into place. Once they are set, the horizontal rails are affixed to the posts using fasteners, and finally the pickets can be attached to the horizontal rails. By far the most time-consuming part of installing a picket fence is setting the posts.

There are some vinyl picket fence systems on the market that are installed without digging holes or pouring concrete. These are installed by driving pipe deep into the ground, which is how chain link fence has been installed for years. This is the most popular way to install vinyl fence in Western Canada, where the deep frost can heave concrete footings out of the ground.

Symbolism

The picket fence, particularly when white, has iconic status as Americana,{{cite web | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150902192009/http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20080303/NEWS/116283318?p=all&tc=pgall | archive-date = 2015-09-02

In popular culture

• Botticelli shows a picket fence in his painting Agony in the Garden, painted c. 1500.
• The phrase "picket fence" also describes text without spaces between words. Such texts are very common in Old Latin, with documents often lacking both spaces and punctuation.

Gallery

File:Picket fence simple.jpg|A simple picket fence File:JarrahFence gobeirne.jpg|Western Australian jarrah picket fence File:Tongshan-County-village-lotus-pond-front-yard-9901.jpg|White picket fence surrounds a front-yard Lotus pond in a village in Hubei, China File:WallendbeenCricketGround.JPG|A cricket oval in Wallendbeen, New South Wales, with a white picket fence File:JiminyPicketVinylFence.jpg|A PVC (or vinyl) Picket Fence File:Gothic Picket Fence.jpg|A gothic-style picket fence built using pressure treated pine File:Metal picket fence in Russia.jpg|Colorful metal picket fence in Russia

References

References

1. (April 2019). "How Did the White Picket Fence Become a Symbol of the Suburbs?". [[Smithsonian (magazine).
2. "No-Dig Fence History".
3. [http://www.landscapingideasonline.com/white-picket-fence.php White Picket Fences].
4. "See It Big: Blue Velvet".
5. [[:File:OrazioneOrtoBotticelli.jpg]]
6. Latin for Dummies